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Srngadz
Phonology and Orthography Consonants Forms in parenthesis are allophones. Vowels Forms in parenthesis are either allophones or variations based on stress. Srngadz does not have rounded vowels. As will be noted below /a/, /i/, and /u/ are written with individual letters and can make a few different sounds based on stress and vowel position: Phonotactics Syllables take the basic form of ©©©V©©. They always contain a nucleus. Syllables can also contain an onset and a coda. The nucleus can be one of three basic vowels /a/, /i/, or /u/, one of the four syllabic consonants /n/, /m/, /l/, or /r/, or in a small closed set of words a syllabic fricative. There are no diphthongs natural to Srngadz. The onset of a syllable follows one of these basic rules: # Optional /s/ or /z/ or /ʃ/ or /ʒ/ added to a /n/ or /m/ with an option /ɰ/ or /j/ or /ɹ/ # Optional /s/ or /z/ or /ʃ/ or /ʒ/ added to a stop with the same voicing as the fricative (if applicable) optionally added to /j/,/ɹ/,/h/,/l/,/ɰ/. # /s/,/z/,/ʃ/,/ʒ/ added to a bilabial fricative with matching voicing optionally added to /j/,/ɹ/,/l/,/ɰ/. # An affricate added optionally to /j/,/ɹ/,/l/,/ɰ/ # A fricative added optionally to /j/,/ɹ/,/l/,/ɰ/ # /ʙ/ added to an optional /j/,/ɹ/,/l/ # The syllabic onset is one of these individual phonemes: /j/,/h/,/ɰ/,/ɹ/,/l/,/ɬ/,/tɬ/,/ŋ/ The coda of a syllable follows one of these basic rules: # Just a fricative. # /s/,/z/,/ʃ/,/ʒ/ plus a stop with matching voicing. # A stop with an optional fricative with matching voicing. # An affricate. # Any of the above plus /ɹ/,/l/,/n/,/m/ # The onset is either just /ɬ/ or just /ŋ/ Additionally if a nucleus of a syllable is a syllable consonant then that consonant may not occur in the onset or coda of that syllable. Writing System Srngadz has a script for itself I can't hope to easily represent here, though I will attempt to explain it. The script is featural, rather than being a syllabary that has a glyph per syllable or an alphabet with a glyph per letter, the script described here has letters for both the place of articulation and the manner of articulation with respect to consonants. It also has a few extra letters including vowels. A breakdown of the alphabet is below: The table below shows how the "places of articulation" characters and "manner of articulation" characters are devided: In the table above the bolded headers each represent a letter. Phonemes with an asterisk represent defective pairings. Nouns Nouns decline into 6 cases with 6 determener categories: *1 Consonant clusters before ending are voiced. *2 Stress always shifts to end. Cases The unmarked case The unmarked case (similar to nominitive) is used with any use of a noun that does not explictly fall under one of the other five cases. Its usage is quite broad though most nouns in this case will either be direct objects of a verb or the object of one of the prepositions that take this case. Intransitive verbs also take an unmarked noun as its single argument. Uses of the unmarked case will be covered below in the "Verbs" and "Prepositions" categories. The genitive case The genitive case functions like the genitive cases of many other languages. It denotes the noun in question as the owner or source of another noun which it modifies. Like all cases some prepositions will require the genitive specifically. For an example the words tɑt (Pen) and 'dʒɤɹɑ (Female teacher) will be used. To show that the pen is owned by the teacher one makes the following noun phrase: dʒɤɹɑ'ne which means "The teacher's pen." Prepositions which take the genitive and their use will be covered under "Prepositions." The Instrimental case The instrimental is used to show that an action or task was completed with the use of some other noun. This is the relationship shown in English with the use of the prepositions "by" or "with." It does not generally denote a comitative relationship and is used most often with inanimate objects. If it is assumed that ðrs means "I write" then the phrase "I write with a pen" can be rendered as such: tɑtɤŋ. Like above, there are prepositions that use this case. The comparitive case The comparitive case shows compairisons between nouns. These comparisons can be either comparisons of attributes, or a comparison of actions. Additionally with the use of prepositions that use the comparitive case the relationship can be marked as positive, comparitive, or even superlative. Taking tɑt from above we can put it in the comparitive as such: tɑtɤl and make the phrase tɑtɤl which translates to "(It) writes like a pen." where ðrʃ in this context means "(It) writes." The causitive case This case denotes that a particular noun was the cause of an action or a state. Nouns in the case are not the object of any verb or preposition, but rather modify the entire clause they are a part of. If we take 'dʒɤɹɑ and ðrs from above we can write ðrs by putting 'dʒɤɹɑ in the comparitive. It translates to "I am writing becuase of the teacher." The partitive case The partitive case tends to be a bit more complicated and arbitrary, with most of its uses coming in the form of prepositions. Though it is not analogous to other language's partitive cases it is named after one of its more straightforward uses: it shows that an object is the whole of which something is a part. Demonstrative categories Indefinite The indefinite is used to show an instance or instences of a noun where it's not important to determine 'which one' the particular object is. For example "I saw a cat yesterday." has a cat as an indefinite noun, marked by the indefinite article a''. It can also be plural: "I saw ''some cats yesterday." though in Srngadz an additional determiner may be needed. Class The 'class' category or possibly 'general' category or 'abstract' category refers to a noun which stands in as a generaliation for its entire category. For example: "Cats ''have tails." where "cats" is being used as a stand in for all cats, even if its not literally true that every single cat has a tail. This is shown in English with the zero determiner. In Srngadz these nouns don't decline into the genitive, instrimental, or partitive. Generally the use of these cases in a generalization like the above would use the indefinite case though if there are exceptions they will be explained. Proximal The proximal conveys that a noun is close to the speaker. In English this is explained with the demonstrative "this". For example in the sentence "''This cat is bothering me." the cat in question can be assumed to be somewhat near the speaker. In this example and in the other three categories below the proximity or lack thereof can be metaphorical as well as literal in a spacial or possibly temporal sense. Medial The medial or possibly mesioproximal refers to a noun near the person being addressed. Such a thing does not exactly exist in English though it can fall under the scope of either "This" or "That." In the sentence "Is that cat bothering you?" the cat in question would be medial if it happened to be near the non-speaker. Mesiodistal The mesiodistal refers to a noun which is not within the apparent proximity of either the speaker or the addressee but is not out of the range of reference. Typically such uses will have the noun within site of the speaker and addressee. "That" in English covers this use. Distal The distal refers to a noun that is far away from bother the speaker and the person being spoken to. Nouns declined in this form are typically out of sight of both parties. In Egnlish this can be represented with "That" but also had the archaic form "Yonder" to express such a thing. Verbs In Srngadz verbs conjugate for both person and aspect. Adverbs also conjugate, but only for person. The conjugation for adverbs is parallel to but not the same as the conjugation for verbs. Tense is marked with a particle that precedes the verb. Additionally there are two classes of verbs. Infinitive verbs and non-infinitive verbs. The majority of all verbs in the language are infinitive verbs most of which are perfectly regular in their conjugation. The conjugation table for infinitive verbs is shown below: Adverb Conjugation Adverb conjugation is much simplier and perfectly regular, there are no distinct classes of adverbs to worry about. In some cases a particular word can be utilized as both an adverb and a verb. In this case the method with which it is conjugated will help distingush the role of a paritulcar word in a sentence. Word order and context can also help with this. The table for adverb conjugation is below: Word order The word order in Srngadz can be broken up into the following rules: *Infinitive verbs follow any adverbs that modify them. **Example: ***English: "I write well." ***Srngadz IPA: ðrsri ***Gloss: Good-1sg Write-1sg.hab *Non-infitive verbs whether as a suffix or a whole word precede any adverbs that modify them. *Nouns being suffixed with a non-infitive verb follow their adjectives. *Otherwise nouns precede their adjectives. **Example: ***English: "John is writing a long letter." ***Srngadz IPA: ðrɸ ɰɤr va ***Gloss: Agent-John Write-3sg.ani.prog Letter Long *Words which modify adjectives (In English, Adverbs: e.g. "He runs very ''quickly.") are futher away from the word which the adjective modifies. That is, if the adjective is modifiying a noun suffied with a non-infitive verb and thus the adjective is before the noun, the word modifying the adjective comes before it. The oppisite is true for adjectives modifying non-suffixed nouns, the adjective modifier goes after the adjective which goes after the noun. *The basic word order in Srngadz is (Subject) Verb-Sub (Object) where the verb's conjugation suffix acts as a subject, and specifiying a subject with a noun is optional. That is, Srngadz is a subject dropping language. Naturally, objects are also optional. *Any verbs that take a subordinate clause must directly precede their subordinate clause, even if they do not take on the subordinating suffix. *Causitive declined nouns should begin the clause they are modifiying. *Genitive and partitive declined nouns act like adjectives, though they don't decline like them. *Instrimental declined nouns act like adverbs, though they don't conjugation like them. *Comparitive declined nouns act like adverbs if the comparison is one of action (e.g. "He writes ''like Bob does") or like adjective modifiers if its a comparison of attributes (e.g. He is as tall as Bob is"). Like the other two cases, these don't need to futher decline or conjugation once put in their case. Lexicon Example text Category:Languages